Sunday, September 30, 2012

The WMU English Department, The Friends of the WMU Libraries, the Frostic School of Art and the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center welcome graphic novelist Nate Powell for a series of events. Powell’s graphic novel Swallow Me Whole (2008) was an Eisner Award winner for Best Graphic Novel, Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, and Ignatz Award winner. Other works by Powell include Any Empire, The Silence Of Our Friends, and the forthcoming March, a graphic novel autobiography of civil rights legend and sitting Congressman John Lewis, to be published by Top Shelf in 2014. For more information visit: www.seemybrotherdance.org. The exhibition and lectures are free and open to the public.

Lecture

"Cross Sections: The Graphic Novels of Nate Powell"

Nate Powell

Western Michigan University

Richmond Center for the Visual Arts, Room 2008

Thursday, October 4, 5:30 p.m., with a reception to follow in the lobby.

Nate Powell will facilitate a round-table style workshop for individuals who are interested in focused, hands-on technical insight into the comics process, information about approaching publishers and editors with creator-owned projects, and feedback and discussion regarding participants' current work. Participants are highly encouraged to bring works-in-progress or previous work.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Terry Eagleton will be giving a lecture on “Ulster Altruism: Francis Hutcheson and William Hazlitt” on Friday, September 28, 2012 at 2pm in the Lower Level Dining Room in McKenna Hall. A reception will follow.

Terry Eagleton is Excellence in English Distinguished Visiting Professor. He is a British literary theorist widely regarded as Britain’s most influential living literary critic. Author of over 40 books primarily in literary criticism and theory, he resides at Notre Dame three weeks each semester through Spring 2014. This is his seventh public lecture at Notre Dame as Distinguished Visiting Professor.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Inquire: Journal of Comparative Literature is seeking GRADUATE STUDENTS in any discipline, including but not limited to Comparative Literature, World Literature, English, Film Studies, or Cultural Studies to volunteer as peer-review readers.

If you are interested, email a brief cover letter (word doc, max 200 words), including your name, email address, academic affiliation, department, areas of expertise, and languages to inquire@ualberta.ca with "reader" as the subject.

Inquire is a peer-reviewed, open-access online journal of Comparative Literature by graduate students in the Comparative Literature Program at the University of Alberta that serves the intellectual and professional interests of an international community of students, teachers and scholars.

Bankhead Visiting Writers Series
The Bankhead Visiting Writers Series brings emerging as well as internationally renowned writers to the University of Alabama campus to read from their work. Past visiting writers include Charles Simic, Alice McDermott, Kevin Young, Andre Dubus, Robert Pinsky, Alice Walker, Bei Dao, Neil Gaiman, and George Saunders, among others.
All readings are made possible by an endowment from the Bankhead Foundation, The Program in Creative Writing, The Department of English, and the College of Arts and Sciences. Books, as well as keepsake broadsides of the authors' work made by UA's Book Arts program, will be available at the readings. Admission is free to all.
Audio podcasts of past Bankhead readings can be found on iTunesU.
Partial Schedule of Readers includes WMU's very own Brandon Jennings on January 31, 2013. See the Bankhead website: http://english.ua.edu/grad/cw/bankhead

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Susan Larson , working for NPR in New Orleans, interviews our very own Nimo Johnson. You can hear the interview at wwno.org/term/books. You may also read a review of Nimo's book by visiting: http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Hold-It-Til-It-Hurts-3866737.php.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Perryman-Clark is Assistant Professor and Director of First-Year Writing, with specialties in English and Rhetoric and Writing Studies as well as African American Language and Pedagogy. Her forthcoming book (under contract with Peter Lang Publishing), Afrocentric Teacher-Research: Rethinking Appropriateness and Inclusion, is a qualitative empirically-based teacher-research study that examines the ways in which African American students and all students perform expository writing tasks using an Ebonics-based Rhetoric and Composition focused first-year writing curriculum. As such, her work focuses on creating culturally-relevant pedagogies and curricular designs to support all students' expository writing practices.

We invite abstracts for fifteen-minute papers from master’s or PhD students, on any medieval, Renaissance, or early modern topic in Europe or the Mediterranean or Atlantic worlds. We encourage submissions from disciplines as varied as the literature of any language, history, classics, anthropology, art history, music, comparative literature, theater arts, philosophy, political science, religious studies, transatlantic studies, disability studies, and manuscript studies.

Eligibility: Proposals are accepted only from students at member institutions of the Center for Renaissance Studies consortium, who may be eligible to apply for reimbursement for travel expenses to attend.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

-->
The NCTE Student AffiliateInvites You
to AttendOur First
“Meet, Eat, and Greetfor the Fall 2012 Semester

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

3025 Brown (Humanities Room)

Stop in between 6:00 – 8:00 pm!

The National Council of Teachers of English Student Affiliate at WMU is
happy to begin a new semester and eager to welcome everyone back for the
2012-2013 school year.This is our
fourth year here on campus, and we are extending an invitation to all English
education majors, minors, and ELA minors to join our affiliate. Being a part of the NCTE Student Affiliate
Leadership Team is a great way to network with peers and professionals in your
area of study, as well as an opportunity to add worthwhile leadership
experience to your resume. Please consider this professional development
opportunity.

Co-Presidents Amanda Hovey and Rachel Bouma at Bronco Bash 2012

If you would be interested in joining our team please
e-mail a brief note of interest to one of our Co-Presidents:

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Western Michigan University
Department of English has named Ms. Tisha Pankop as the department’s 2012-2013
Distinguished Alumna.

Ms. Pankop is in her 18th year of teaching at Loy Norrix High
School in Kalamazoo. She holds a B.A. and a M.A from the Western Michigan
University Department of English. Under her supervision, the Loy Norrix “Knight
Life”, the student newspaper has won many prestigious awards from the Michigan
Interscholastic Press Association, including the top rating for Michigan High
School newspapers, The Spartan Award in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011.Among her many honors are Golden
Pen award winner—top journalism teacher in Michigan for the 2005-2006 school
year, MEA Human Rights 2008 Elizabeth
Siddall Award, Excellence In Education, Significant Educator Award (5 times),
and National Board Certification, 2006.

Her students have engaged in
multiple local, national, and international partnerships and projects that have
enhanced cross-cultural understanding and community tolerance. From 2000-2005, Ms. Pankop’s students worked
collaboratively with WMU School of Communication faculty member Sue Ellen Christian to
publish a special edition of the newspaper each year addressing the topic of
teaching tolerance in Kalamazoo County. One special edition was inserted in the
local newspaper and had a circulation of 70,000 readers. Likewise, in
the 2006-2007 school year, her Loy Norrix High School student newspaper
published a special edition through a pen pal experience with students from St.
Kizitio School in Kampala, Uganda. After exchanging letters, the Loy Norrix
reporters printed the special edition newspaper focusing on schooling, culture,
and human-interest articles.

“Tisha Pankop is an excellent
representative of our department and all our graduates who go onto outstanding
teaching careers in English language arts,” states Dr. Jonathan Bush, Chair of
the WMU Department of English. “We are excited to honor her excellence in
teaching, commitment to her profession, and dedication to social justice in
Kalamazoo and beyond.”

Ms. Pankop will represent the
WMU English Department at distinguished alumni events during WMU’s Homecoming,
October 5-6, 2012. She will also be a featured speaker at the department’s
2012-2013 Award Ceremony, Friday, March 22.